Across the Rainbow Bridge: Stories of Norse Gods and Humans

Creepy monotone illustrations bring to life this collection of short stories from the North, although fans of the Grimm Brothers and darker fairy tales may be disappointed because they aren’t nearly as chilling as I’d hoped!

While some of the descriptive writing in Across the Rainbow Bridge: Stories of Norse Gods and Humans is fantastic, the real strength of these Norse mythology tales lies in the illustrations. I found the stories somewhat simplistic and not terribly satisfying, but I could look at the artwork for days.

Having a collection of authentic Norse tales will be appealing to some readers. It’s clear they were well researched and I could even see them enriching a decent history class to give a flavor of the culture.

The stories are a good length for bedtime, when they are less likely to keep younger readers up with nightmares than the Grimms’ tales might, but unfortunately the stories I made up on my own looking at the pictures were more entertaining than what was written. Also, how many of the tales resolved just left me feeling flat or puzzled, rather than wowed or, better yet, scared!